Thanks guys, it's just some ramblings after using the car a bit as now I feel that I can actually comment with at least the confidence in my own opinion of the car based on experience.
I have to say that reading through the likes of JC's comments of the IS I am a bit miffed as to what it is the press think about Lexus. It seems to me there's a vendetta against them or something. I mean after all, how dare they challenge the mighty Bavarians.
But to me the Lexus is slightly different, especially the IS, as it's not being hailed as "the ultimate driving machine", it's being billed as a damned good car. Which it is IMO.
Comments like, "it doesn't drive as well as the 3 series with all the traction control and stability stuff switched off" make my blood boil, why on Earth would anyone do that, the safety stuff is (believe it or not) there for a reason. Even when you do the jornos still admit that it is a marginal difference between them. I don't know many drivers that would hammer the best part of £30K or more so hard as to find the limits, especially with all the safety aids switched off. But of course the jornos don't care as, if they wrap one into a crash barrier they ain't really too fussed. A case of "don't try this at home children".
I just love the car, I love the toys. I'm sitting in a queue of traffic on the M1 the other day in my nice little cocoon of luxury with the nice draft wafting my ***** and back, listening to an MP3 CD with fantastic clarity and looking at a few 5 and 3 series that floated by and I'm thinking, tough luck matey. As soon as the queue clears I'm back up to speed on radar and I've not missed a beat. After four hours in the car I got out almost as refreshed as when I got in it at first, I didn't even have a sweaty a$$ (not that that's a pleasant thought I realise, but the point is made) from sitting on leather for all that time.
Had I gone for a German car I'd have had something akin to deck chairs as standard that use the hardest canvas known to mankind for the seating. Of course I could have leather, if I wanted to pay and extra £1000 or so and I could have heating in them for an extra few hundred again. The numb a$$ you get comes as standard at no extra cost.
The other one that really winds me up is the multi-media pack. I keep seeing that it is referred to as being expensive. Yeah right. Have these dudes actually priced the same sort of system from our Germanic friends, ever? DVD satnav will almost universally add £2K to the ticket, then add the sound upgrade, usually another £500 or so, then another £400 or something for Bluetooth phone preparation and you still can't get a reversing camera or, in some cases, an IPOD connector. None I saw would play an MP3 DVD, or much of any DVD IIRC.
The Germans make the Lexus MM system look positively like a bargain!
Carry that theme on into ACC and auto as well. The lights I have as standard on my SEL would have cost circa £1500 on an Audi and, as they are an extra, they do bugger all for the resale value other then making the car easier to punt later.
Which leads me on to another topic. Why is it that you have to choose the right extras on a German car? What's that about? And, whatever you seem to choose that's a "good choice sir" of colour and spec when you buy it it always seems to be, "oh if you'd specified....bla...bla...bla..." when you come to sell the car would be worth several thousand quid more. Not a rat race I want to get into when I'm gambling with my own hard earned cash thanks.
But then the extras game with the Germans is only their way of being able to pay for the fancy showrooms as they make shedloads from them and, when sales get tough, they start adding them for "free". Uh huh.
One of my mates suggested I looked at an M3, he said it went very fast. I said yes but you'd want to get where you were going fast as there's sod all to be doing in it. Anyway, where are you going to use that level of performance these days on the roadsthe way they are? You're often either stuck in traffic or toodling about playing spot the GATSO or "speed safety van" on the bridges of the great UK motorways whilst keeping one eye ahead to see where the next snarl up is.
Oh, that's a good thing on the Lex MM system, I just love the little warning triangles that tell you where you're about to get held up. Doesn't stop you being held up, it's just cool that the car knows you will be before you actually are. Of course often you choose to ignore the warning as you know better, sometimes that works for you but often the car wins.
As for the dealers, well I got mine from Lexus Glasgow and so far I can't complain one bit. I've experienced quite a few dealers over the years and my other half worked for Arnold Clark so I know the score. How well they will do in the longer term we'll have to wait and see when it comes service time, but thus far it's been a pleasure.
K.